Look How Many Corporations Backed Out of ‘Pride’ Month This Year: Is the Movement Over?
A recent trend shows many major American corporations withdrawing their support for Pride Month events, which has led to significant budget deficits for various pride organizations. For example, San Francisco Pride faces a $200,000 shortfall as sponsors like Anheuser-Busch end their long-standing affiliations, including a 30-year sponsorship of PrideFest in St. Louis. This decline in corporate support is attributed to a combination of factors, including political skepticism surrounding transgender issues and a general fatigue toward Pride celebrations among teh public. Companies such as BMW and Cisco have opted to maintain their customary logos rather than promoting Pride-themed changes, reflecting a hesitance to engage with the movement after backlash faced by other brands like Target and Bud Light. Despite this,some Pride organizers emphasize the importance of attendance and support during these challenging times,highlighting that participating in Pride events sends a strong message of solidarity.
Supporting “pride month” events was once nearly ubiquitous among major American corporations.
But this year, many companies are withdrawing their support, causing budget shortfalls at “pride” events across the nation.
The Associated Press attributed the trend to skepticism from the Trump administration toward transgender ideology, not to mention more generalized fatigue from the broader public toward “pride month.”
San Francisco Pride, for instance, now has a $200,000 budget deficit after some of their sponsors stepped away. San Francisco has long been recognized as a national hub of the LGBT movement.
KC Pride in Kansas City, Missouri, lost the same amount, which is half of its yearly budget.
The umbrella group which runs NYC Pride and similar events in the Big Apple is trying to raise $750,000 to cover a substantial budget gap.
Among the companies ending their affiliations with “pride” events are Anheuser-Busch, which stopped sponsoring PrideFest in its home city of St. Louis, Missouri, after three decades.
Beyond the sponsorship of “pride month,” some companies refrained from other public gestures in favor of the movement.
BMW used to splash its color with rainbows on social media, an act they repeated as recently as last June.
But this year, the white, gray, and blue logo remained unchanged, according to a report from Newsweek.
Cisco, a technology giant based in Silicon Valley, also declined to change its logo this year.
Some major sports franchises refrained from posting about “pride month.” That included a dozen NFL teams, per Newsweek.
The outlet attributed the shift to backlash seen by other brands that once enthusiastically supported the LGBT movement, such as retailer Target and beer brand Bud Light, which is owned by Anheuser-Busch.
Several “pride month” organizers were cognizant of the new trend.
“If you come to Pride this year, that’s a revolutionary act,” San Francisco Pride executive director Suzanne Ford remarked, per the Associated Press.
“You are sending a message to those in Washington that, here in San Francisco, we still have the same values that we’ve always had — you can love who you love here. We’re not going to retreat from that.”
The outlet added that some companies once more sponsored the “pride month” events after their pivot was reported, but still asked that their names not be affiliated with the events.
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